after dusk - draco malfoy

i. | one

FOURTH YEAR

          SUMMER HAD BEEN LONG. I HAD missed my friends so much and I had been counting the days down until the Quidditch World Cup, which would be when I could see most of them again. My Aunt told me that she had been friends with Poppy's Mum in school so I had met up with her in Diagon Alley, where we met Tommy and Stella.

          Whenever I had gone to Diagon Alley, I was with my Aunt or Uncle as they wanted to preserve my safety as much as they could. There was still no sign of Deatheaters but Harry had written to be during the summer and told me someone who sold his parents out to Voldemort was actually alive.

          I had told my Aunt and Uncle about the man, named Peter Pettigrew and they were shocked to find Sirius Black was innocent and that Peter Pettigrew, one of their childhood friends, was the guilty one. At this, I thought they might move me away, again, but they decided him being alive didn't affect me in any way so it was safe to stay - especially since I had no interaction with him.

          While I had missed my friends a lot, particularly Harry, Ron, and Hermione who I hadn't seen much of, I had missed Draco the most. We had been sending Owls to one another but it just didn't seem good enough. I hated it but I had to stick to the fact I had told myself that the space we would get during the summer would be beneficial to us.

          My Aunt and Uncle seemed more preoccupied over the summer as they both worked with the Ministry. My Uncle worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports so had to help with the planning of the World Cup. My Aunt seemed even busier as she worked in the Department of International Magical Cooperation after moving back from France. She had been an Auror in the past but she felt that it would be easier for You-Know-Who to find me if she was an Auror.

          Aunt Emma was working on two projects at the minute but she was more secretive about the second, telling me it was a surprise so in the end I just gave up trying to find out. We usually went on holiday in the summer but they were both extremely too busy to even think about going on holiday.

          Uncle Leo was working on where to put the portkeys around the country as it was difficult to leave them where Muggles wouldn't find them. He told me that they had to be something usual to be left around but not something that a Muggle would think to touch or move. He had told me that Stoatshead Hill would be where I would be needing to go with Ron's family.

          A few days before I was due to go to Ron's, around three weeks before the World Cup, Aunt Emma and Uncle Leo had received an Owl from the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. "He's invited Emma and me to come to the World Cup," Uncle Leo explained to me. "He would like us to sit in his box as a means of thanking Emma for her hard work."

          Aunt Emma had turned to where I had been sitting in their study. "There's an extra ticket if you would like to come with us and tell the Weasley's you're coming with us, instead," she proposed the offer, which I took a disliking to almost instantly.

          I imagined the box being filled with stuck up wizards who would be dressed and talking extremely formally. No cheering. No face paint. No banners. No flags. And most important of all, none of my friends would be there. No one worth spending time with. I imagined how much I would hate being at the once in a lifetime event. I wanted to have fun, not be bored the whole time.

          I shook my head at my Aunt in disapproval. "Thanks for the offer but I couldn't imagine anything worse," I told her, scrunching my nose up, to which she laughed almost in agreement. "If I'm being totally honest with you, I'd rather go with my friends," I admitted, trying not to be rude.